--- title: Ebola: What It Will Take to Contain the Worst Outbreak in History description: Doctors Without Borders is calling the latest outbreak in west Africa “out of control,” and here’s why. canonical: https://time.com/2933963/ebola-outbreak-worst/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-27T17:56:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:58:15.994Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola: Why It Spread So Fast and How to Contain the Worst Oubreak in History og:description: Doctors Without Borders is calling the latest outbreak in west Africa “out of control,” and here’s why. og:url: https://time.com/2933963/ebola-outbreak-worst/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt526b45170c1c8d43/698699a83bc99963c91a44d4/ebola-west-africa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2860 og:image:height: 1609 og:image:alt: Ebola in Liberia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola: Why It Spread So Fast and How to Contain the Worst Oubreak in History twitter:description: Doctors Without Borders is calling the latest outbreak in west Africa “out of control,” and here’s why. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt526b45170c1c8d43/698699a83bc99963c91a44d4/ebola-west-africa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What It Will Take to Contain the Worst Ebola Outbreak in History > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=9d01503b-5194-46b4-91aa-fd6fe6ee31ef&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: History's Worst Ebola Outbreak [Watch (HLS stream): History's Worst Ebola Outbreak](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4t4OY2Yt.m3u8) (2:41)  _Published 2014-06-27. History's Worst Ebola Outbreak_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jun 27, 2014 5:56 PM UTC  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jun 27, 2014 5:56 PM UTC The “perfect storm” analogy is often over-used when it comes to disease outbreaks–all the elements that you don’t want to see converge to make conditions ripe for a bacteria, or, in this case, a virus, to rip through a population at lightning speed: geography, society, culture, a potent virus, reluctant politicians and a weak health care system. But all those factors are contributing to history’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak, which the [World Health Organization now calls a “crisis.”](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2014/ebola-response/en/) Since early spring, Ebola has spread to two additional countries, Sierra Leone and [Liberia](http://time.com/43579/ebola-spreads-from-guinea-to-liberia/), infecting 635 people and claiming nearly 400 lives. **MORE:** [Ebola Outbreak Beyond Our Control, Doctors Without Borders Says](http://time.com/2913079/doctors-without-borders-ebola/) The Ebola virus causes a nasty infection that triggers an inflammatory reaction so intense, patients essentially drown in their own fluids as they bleed internally and externally — victims’ bodies are overtaken with a well-intentioned defensive system run amok. Anyone who comes into contact with the infected fluids can also get infected. As of now, there are no treatments for Ebola. The only hope is for the body to remain strong enough to overcome the initial onslaught from the virus and start to [develop antibodies](http://time.com/57261/ebola-guinea-disease-msf-africa/) to fight it. As patients get sick, they stop eating and drinking, becoming too weak to develop these critical antibodies. Left alone, nine out of 10 infected people die. At treatment centers, where doctors can provide supportive care with nutrients and hydration, that figure improves to seven out of 10. Those aren’t great odds, and social and cultural practices in west Africa may be stacking the deck even further. Dr. Michel Van Herp, a physician and epidemiologist with Doctors Without Borders who traveled to Guinea when the outbreak began, says he has been confronted by hostile villagers who did not welcome the medical help. “I have had aggressive people in front of me in the village,” Van Herp says, as he tried to bring infected patients to treatment centers. “Most villagers are denying the existence of Ebola.” **MORE:** [6 Things to Know About the Latest Ebola Outbreak](http://time.com/47018/ebola-breaks-out-in-west-africa/) That denial is fueled by a strong stigma against the disease. In other parts of central Africa where smaller outbreaks occurred, survivors of Ebola returned to their villages only to find their homes burned and their remaining family members ostracized for having been infected. Such denial not only increases the risk that the close contacts of those infected by Ebola will be affected, but it also creates the ideal situation for the virus to gain an even broader foothold. A critical first step in containing any outbreak of infectious disease involves carefully tracing which people patients have been in contact with. Only then can scientists start to create barriers against the virus by keeping it contained to people known to have already been exposed. In Guinea, denial and stigma against Ebola means some patients who believe they are infected are fleeing to other villages or even crossing the border to another country. “If you have a guy who runs away to a village 20 kilometers away, then you need to start from scratch in that village to trace his contacts,” says Van Herp. **MORE:** [What You Need to Know About the Ebola Virus](http://time.com/37123/ebola-outbreak/) Making things worse is the fact that in the part of western Africa where the outbreak is centered, the population is particularly mobile, often traveling to nearby Sierra Leone and Liberia in search of work. “We’ve seen kids who travel between three or four villages, and between the countries before they are too sick and weak that they aren’t able to work any more,” says Van Herp. “In the meantime they have contaminated three or four villages.” Cultural practices mean that the potential for transmitting Ebola is also amplified if a respected elder is affected. “If a guy like this falls sick, then more people try to cure him,” says Van Herp. “If he dies, more people are involved in the process of the funeral–in cleaning the dead body, and preparing the body. We have seen that one patient can give disease to 15 or 20 other people.” Van Herp plans to return to Guinea in July, but he says that so far, there hasn’t been much improvement in people’s education and acceptance about Ebola, despite the rising number of deaths. The WHO has called an emergency meeting of 11 nations next week to discuss ways of containing the outbreak. Attending will be the Minister of Health from Uganda, where the government has made efforts to address the stigma associated with Ebola by creating a survivors network to educate and inform the public about the disease–and hopefully reduce fear and misperceptions about the virus. ## Transcript Well, part of the reason this has become the, the deadliest now, Ebola outbreak, certainly the most widespread is that the, the challenges of, of trying to take care of patients in so many different areas. When you think about Ebola in the past, it's typically isolated to one remote sort of village or town, but now it has spread into a city of 2 million people which is the capital of Guinea known as Conakry. This is a city that has an international airport and that has raised some concerns as well. But there's no question that these numbers have been steadily growing and it's become increasingly challenging to care for these patients. Now keep in mind we talk about Ebola. We're talking about a pathogen that is not particularly contagious. Doesn't spread easily from person to person, but it is highly infectious, meaning only a small amount can make somebody sick. Even a droplet of something can make somebody sick. So when people are, are spreading this disease, it's usually to healthcare workers for example. People who are caring for these patients, getting even a miniscule amount of droplets on them, could potentially make them ill. That is also part of the reason there is a lack of resources now. Look at the objectives in terms of protecting these healthcare workers. They gotta dress up in these suits to literally cover every square inch of their body to try and keep them protected. It's very labor intensive. It is hot, over 100 degrees out there and it is difficult to, you have to, people have to continuously be replaced because it's very hard to keep doing this job day after day, and that's part of the reason there has been a tremendous drain on resources. It's also worth reminding that the death rate for this particular Ebola outbreak while very high, has been lower than in previous situations, and in part I think that's because they are identifying patients with Ebola more quickly and because they do have some of the resources of this big city of Conakry, Guinea. The downside is that you have patients with Ebola who are now in a city with an international airport. The incubation period, or the time that it takes for someone to get sick is anywhere up to 21 days. So someone, could someone get exposed, get on airplane, fly around the world? That is possible, there's no question that could possibly happen, and many people predict that it will happen. That's the bad news. The potentially good new in all of this, is that before someone starts to spread this disease from person to person, they're often very sick themselves. They are down in bed. They are down for the count. They are not going to be up walking around an airport. So that is why family members and healthcare workers are typical the ones most likely to become infected. But again the numbers are high, now the highest in terms of Ebola outbreaks and this is the most widespread including a city of 2 million people. 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